Emporia State rises in U.S. News rankings

September 10, 2013

Emporia State University rose five spots to remain a Top 100 Regional University in the 2014 edition of “Best Colleges,” which was released today by U.S. News & World Report. As a Top 100 university, Emporia State continues Tier 1 status.

A total of 110 schools made the Tier 1 rankings — or top 75 percent — for Midwest Regional Universities. Of those, Emporia State was ranked 92, up from 97 in the 2013 rankings.

“The 2014 rankings show the forward progress we are making,” said Dr. Michael D. Shonrock, president of Emporia State.

U.S. News defines Regional Universities as institutions that offer a full range of undergraduate majors and master’s degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. Emporia State offers one Ph.D. program in the School of Library and Information Management.

The Midwest Regional Universities rankings included 147 public, private and proprietary schools in 12 states — Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Of those 147 Midwest Regional Universities, 54 are public schools. Emporia State ranked No. 33 of the 54 public institutions.

The rankings came from a variety of statistical information looking as far back as the 2003-04 school year and as recently as the 2012-13 academic year that was collected during spring and summer 2013. The information is weighted into categories that then are calculated into a final score. The categories for Regional Universities are peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

Emporia State University also saw gains in specific statistics in the 2014 rankings. The number of classes with fewer than 20 students grew to 50 percent of those offered. Using data from the class entering in Fall 2012, the percentage of freshmen ranked in the top 25 percent of their high school classes rose six points to 37 percent and the ACT scores for the middle 50 percent of the class rose to 20-25.

“We know these rankings are something that prospective students and parents look to when choosing a university,” Shonrock said. “We have great aspirations to be ranked even higher in the future.”